The announcement of the results for the 1999-2000 school year almost
doubled the number of teachers who made the mark last year, board
officials noted.

"We believe we're well on our way to reaching our goal of 100,000
national-board-certified teachers by 2006," Betty Castor, the president
of the board, said in releasing the results.

The organization has received 11,000 applications from teachers who
wish to be candidates for certification in the 2000-01 school year, she
added.

— Bradley

School for Homeless Opens

The Los Angeles Unified School District has teamed up with a leading
social service agency in the city to open a school designed to serve
the homeless and working poor.

The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Learning Center in Los Angeles, which
opened Nov. 27, links staff members from the Belmont Community Adult
School with the Weingart Center, one of the nation's largest social
service agencies.

The 22,000-square-foot school offers adults computer training,
preparation for the General Educational Development test,
English-as-a-second- language classes, and basic courses in English and
mathematics. Workshops and job counseling to prepare adults for
employment also will be available.

The school is located much closer to areas plagued by poverty and
unemployment than other adult education facilities, according to
Sabrina Prud'homme, a program administrator with the Weingart
Center.

"The partnership is key," Ms. Prud'homme said. "A social service
organization or a school alone can't accommodate all of the needs of
people."

—John Gehring

Teen Use of 'Ecstasy' Rises

While teenage marijuana use plunged for the third straight year, an
increasing number of teenagers are using the drug known as "ecstasy,"
according to a report released last week.

In its 13th annual survey, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America
found that the percentage of teenagers who have tried ecstasy at least
once jumped from 7 percent in 1999 to 10 percent this year. The rate
has doubled since 1995, when 5 percent of teenagers reported using the
drug, which is a methamphetamine.

The survey queried 7,290 students in 7th through 12th grade.

By contrast, the New York City-based nonprofit group reported that
40 percent of teenagers said they had tried marijuana, down slightly
from 41 percent in 1999. Marijuana use has declined for the past three
years; in 1997, 44 percent of teenagers surveyed said they had used the
drug.

"The shifts [in marijuana use] reflect good things for the future,
but the spike we are seeing [in use of ecstasy] demands our attention,"
Richard D. Bonnette, the president of the organization, said in a
statement.

—Jessica Portner

N.C. District Thinking 'Green'

A once-rural North Carolina district is planning to build what it
says could be one of the most environmentally friendly schools in the
country.

The 17,000-student Iredell-Stateside school system, located in a
growing suburb between Charlotte and Winston-Salem, has approved plans
to construct an $11.5 million elementary school that will be designed
to expose its 800 students to lots of daylight and conserve energy and
water.

The district has paid a $2,000 application fee to have the school
certified as "green" with the U.S. Green Building Council, a
Washington-based nonprofit group. If approved, the school, scheduled to
open in the fall of 2002, would be the first elementary school to be so
designated in the nation.

"We've been interested in lessening the environmental impact, and we
were also interested in it as a learning tool," said Julia C. Williams,
the district's assistant superintendent for planning.

—Mark Stricherz

Detroit Audits Reveal Fraud

Audits of 30 Detroit public schools covering 1996 to 1999 have found
that up to $600,000 was misused during that period or is still
missing.

Virgil Lobring, the interim chief of staff for the 164,000-student
Detroit schools, said it's difficult to determine exactly how much
money was involved.

"There's been no paper," he said. "Throughout our district, there's
a serious lack of documentation for accounting."

The district audited its 29 high schools and one elementary school.
At some schools, gate receipts for athletic events are unaccounted for,
while at others, money was improperly spent on flowers, fraternity
dues, and lunches for employees.

One high school principal reimbursed himself for $95,000 over a
two-year period for personal items ranging from gasoline to a trip to
Italy for his son, an audit found. That principal and another high
school principal have been placed on paid leave.

Four former high school principals who were promoted to district
administration positions this year oversaw schools where some financial
irregularities were identified, Mr. Lobring said.

So far, two bookkeepers have been fired and eight high school audits
have been turned over to the Wayne County prosecutor's office for
review. Some employees face embezzlement and forgery charges.

—Karla Scoon Reid

Judge Fines N.J. Union

Teachers in a south New Jersey school district who ended their
three-day strike last week will have to pay the price: $45,000.

A New Jersey Superior Court judge imposed the fine against the New
Jersey Education Association's Magnolia district affiliate, which
represents 40 teachers and five custodians.

The fine was a penalty for staying on strike for three days, despite
Judge Theodore Z. Davis' order to return to work at the district's
250-student K-8 school on Nov. 17, the first day of the strike.

The two sides reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year
contract on Nov. 27, but it has not yet been ratified. The points of
contention were salary and benefits for nontenured teachers, said Karen
Joseph, a spokeswoman for the NJEA.

Ms. Joseph said the union may try to appeal to the judge to drop the
fines.

—Lisa Fine

Mass. Workshop Draws Suit

An employee of the Massachusetts education department who was fired
last spring for leading a workshop that included graphic sexual
descriptions is suing the agency and the two activists who secretly
taped the session.

In the suit, filed late last month, Margot E. Abels accuses Scott
Whiteman and Brian Camenker of violating her right to privacy and the
state's anti-wiretapping law by recording a workshop she led last March
at the request of the Gay & Lesbian Student Education Network.
("Mass. Ed. Dept. Criticized
for Taped Session on Gay Sex," May 31, 2000.)

Ms. Abels, who was a coordinator of the education department's
HIV/AIDS program, also says state Commissioner of Education David P.
Driscoll violated her free-speech rights by firing her in May after the
men made the tape public and it generated a storm of controversy.

She is asking to be reinstated with back pay and is seeking some
$200,000 in emotional-distress and punitive damages, citing abusive and
threatening messages she received as a result of the tape.

Mr. Camenker, the president of the Parents' Rights Coalition, a
group founded in 1995 to monitor sex education in schools, denied he or
Mr. Whiteman had broken the law. "The idea of extending the wiretapping
law to something like this is absurd," he said.

The group is also being sued separately by a student who took part
in the workshop.

The education department did not respond to a request for
comment.

—Bess Keller

Vol. 20, Issue 14, Page 4

Published in Print: December 6, 2000, as News in Brief: A National Roundup

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